{"id":58252,"date":"2015-11-15T00:09:24","date_gmt":"2015-11-15T08:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=58252"},"modified":"2015-11-15T00:09:24","modified_gmt":"2015-11-15T08:09:24","slug":"young-cultivators-merit-badge-music-beginner-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/58252","title":{"rendered":"Young Cultivators Merit Badge: Music, Beginner Level"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tThe adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our<\/span> Sisterhood Merit Badge program<\/span><\/u><\/a>, now with\u00a06,724 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20149,486 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Wondering who I am? I\u2019m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my<\/span> former life<\/span><\/u><\/a> \u2026\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

For this week\u2019s Young Cultivator Make it Easy\/Music Beginner Level Merit Badge<\/u><\/a>, I knew I needed a brush-up on my own musical skills, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone. So to speak. No killing of anything required for this badge, Madge, rest assured.<\/p>\n

I wrangled in my partner in Merit Badge earning crime, the ever-so-lovely Miss Piper, and I explained what we needed to do in order to earn this one. She said it sounded easy-peasy, but I reminded her that’s what we think about a lot of things in life until we try them.<\/p>\n

\"\"

photo by Stilfehler via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cRemember leash-training the pot-bellied pig?\u201d I asked. \u201cThe DIY flying trapeze? The year we went without Netflix? Yeah. That\u2019s what I thought. Now, front and center!\u201d (You have to be strict with kids. They like it, and it keeps them on their toes, which is always a good thing. I highly recommend cultivating a little suspicious fear in the whippersnappers whenever possible.)<\/p>\n

We got to pick three songs and listen to them, trying to identify the different musical instruments used. This seemed like it wouldn\u2019t be so difficult, but I made the mistake of letting Piper pick the first song. Evidently, I am old. I am not phat<\/em> enough (what\u2019d she call me?!) to fully appreciate the youngsters’ musical tastes these days. Still, I was game. I made a guess as to an instrument used,<\/p>\n

\u201cA kazoo?\u201d I asked, desperately trying to hear some semblance of classical composition somewhere in the song. Anywhere. At all. \u201cA trash-can lid? An underwater elephant with a sinus infection?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAunt Jane! Come on now, that\u2019s a bass guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh. Yes. Totally was my next guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piper was a good sport and she let me pick the next song. I chose the melodious sounds of Simon and Garfunkel. My ears needed them after Piper\u2019s pick.<\/p>\n

Piper woke herself with a snort and wiped the drool off her chin (very funny, kid). \u201cI\u2019m gonna go with \u2026 um, a harp?\u201d<\/p>\n

Turns out, my instinct about how hard this badge was going to be was pretty on point. We attempted cataloging the instruments in a few other songs, but by then it was hard to hear our guesses because we were laughing so hard.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure we learned much, but we definitely bonded. So that counts, right??<\/p>\n

Next\u2014when the giggles died down\u2014we talked about harmony, melody, and rhythm.<\/p>\n

\"\"

photo by Nichelle Anderson via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cHarmony,\u201d said I, in my most astute voice, \u201cis what we were just doing when my alto yodeling matched your soprano wailing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd melody,\u201d said Piper, getting into the spirit, \u201cis what we both tend to ignore in favor of our own tune.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd rhythm,\u201d I continued, \u201cis a most excellent word to use in a game of Hangman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAunty, you are so wise.\u201d Piper high-fived me. \u201cEven if your musical taste is dreadful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pshaw! Kids these days.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with\u00a06,724 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20149,486 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ\u00a0 Wondering who … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gladsome_sisters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}